Ten of the Kinkiest Science Fiction Books You'll Ever Read

When you finally sneak away from family gatherings this weekend, you're going to want some adult science fiction to take your mind off things. That's why we've got the ultimate holiday counterprogramming for you: 10 kinky science fiction novels that you can hide in your book bag or e-book reader and enjoy late at night when the kids and parents are in bed.Kushiel's Dart, by Jacqueline Carey
The first novel in a trilogy about Phedre, a spy/courtesan whose two superpowers include learning languages really quickly and a preternatural ability to experience pain as intense sexual pleasure. You'd be surprised how many times erotic masochism comes in handy as Phedre and her fighting monk sidekick journey through an alternate history of the middle ages. Can they stop an evil takeover of the sexually-liberated kingdom of Terre d'Ange? This is one of those rare books that is a good adventure mixed with really hot sex scenes.Kinks: Sadomasochism.The Witching Hour, by Anne Rice
The first and by far the best of Anne Rice's interminable Mayfair Witches series, The Witching Hour is the tale of a powerful, randy demon named Lasher who has attached his fate to a family of Louisiana witches. Full of the gothy, historical-crunchy goodness that made Rice a superstar before that whole Jesus thing, this novel is about Lasher's mega-hot dalliance with our main character (he's polymorphous and invisible - you do the math), as well as the history of his love affairs with her ancestors going back several generations. Witchy ladies and sexy ghosts in Louisiana? You can't say no.Kinks: Mind-control sex, incest.Returning Creation (from the High Couch of Silistria series), by Janet Morris.
If you like to see ladies brought low, and then raised up to be worshipped, and then brought low again, then the "High Couch of Silistra" series is for you. Set on a planet of psychically-gifted people who embrace sexual diversity and peace, the series is focused mainly on sexual slavery and war. Our heroine is a prostitute (a noble calling on her world) who holds the "high couch" of her town - basically, she's the sex duchess. Unfortunately she's always being kidnapped or taken to other worlds where she's tied up, forced to have degrading sex, and (of course) has lots of tearful, shame-faced orgasms. Silly and pulpy, the first novel in the series is basically a swashbuckler with kinky bondage thrown in between sword fights. Also, there is a giant flying cat.Kinks: Sexual slavery, bondage.Gorean Saga, by John Norman
The 26 novels in John Norman's Gorean Saga no doubt inspired the "High Couch" series by Morris, as well as influencing an entire generation of kinky nerds who love to tie each other up and play slavery games. "Goreans" have been acting out their BDSM fantasies online since the days of text-only chat rooms, and they were the first group to buy an island in virtual world Second Life. Find out what all the fuss is about by checking out these novels about a nerdy academic who travels to a parallel world called Gor where all women are in bondage and all men can have their way with these collared, scantily-clad lovelies. All the Gor books are available in e-book form here.Kinks: Sexual slavery, bondage.Extraterrestrial Sex Fetish, by Supervert
A demented, hilarious, and theory-geekish tale of Mercury De Sade, who fancies sex with aliens and sets out to tell you, the reader, exactly how to get what you want out of every possible type of alien creature. Creepy in parts, this isn't really a book intended to get you off so much as to make you think about the mechanism of desire itself. Packed with weird interpretations of French philosophy related to alien life, this is a book that will take your breath away if you get off on post-structuralism and humping ET.Kinks: French philosophy, sex with aliens.Touched by Venom (from Dragon Temple Saga), by Janine Cross
If you want the full effect of these sexy-disturbing novels, you really have to read all three of them. Zarq is a young woman on a planet where dragons are sort of like a combination of cows, horses, and heroin. The winged creatures are a form of transportation, but people also eat their eggs and their super-addictive venom, which turns them into blissed-out, horny sluts. And even better than eating venom, which grows on dragon tongues? Well, it's actually having those dragons stick their venom-tongues deep inside your you-know-what place.Kinks: Bestiality, drugs.Lilith's Brood, by Octavia Butler
More alien sex awaits you in Butler's trilogy about an alien species that wants to merge with humans on a biological level. The aliens have three sexes, and their third sex has the ability to tap into your nervous system and give you the most amazing braingasm you've ever had. It can also remix genetic material to create human-alien hybrids. These novels are smart, politically-charged tales of what happens when humanity is colonized. But they also contain several scenes that manage to be both erotic and integral to our characters' development.Kinks: Mind control sex, incest, tentacles.

The Pleasure Tube, by Robert Onopa
A guilty pleasure, Onopa's novel is about a conspiracy on board a special ship called "the pleasure tube," where you experience perfect happiness and sexual fulfillment while your brain is plugged into a computer. Mostly it's just a 1970s cheesefest, filled with lots of drugs and interchangeable hot ladies in crazy outfits. But there are also a lot of fun "we will plug this into your brain's pleasure centers" moments too.Kinks: Swinging, cybersex.The Velderet, by Cecilia Tan
If you've never experienced Tan's erotic science fiction writing, then you are in for a treat. Not only does she write the hottest kinky SF you've ever read, but she even runs a small press called Circlet that's devoted to erotic SF books. The Velderet is one of her masterpieces, about two people who go into a virtual world to find partners for the BDSM sex that's forbidden on their repressive planet. But then a race of aliens arrive to conquer their planet, and not only do these aliens practice kinky sex, but it's the foundation for their entire social system. So our kinky outlaw heroes are the best-equipped people on the planet to deal with the alien menace. Come for the sex, but stay for the awesome tale of alien invasion. The Velderet is available as an e-book from Circlet.Kinks: Sadomasochism, cybersex, gender-role swapping.Saturn's Children, by Charles Stross
The tale of a sexbot trapped in a vast smuggling conspiracy, Stross' novel is a veritable wonderland of kinky fun. Our heroine Freya is designed to be a sexbot, so she experiences everything through the medium of sexuality, including spaceship rides and pretty much any humanoid she meets. Highly recommended, though be warned that the sex is mostly played for laughs rather than hotness.Kinks: Incest, robot sex, sex with furniture, sex with spaceships, sex with anime characters.

I've read several of these, and I think it should be added that many of these authors have written other kinky books too. Anne Rice, for example, wrote the Sleeping Beauty series, which were filed with sadomasochism and other kinks like pony-play, and of course there have been lots of sequels to Carey's Kushiel's Dart.

I'd add a few others to this list. Lots of the work by James Tiptree has alien sex of various sorts (though most of his/her work was in short stories. There is some sex in Brightness Falls From the Sky, as I recall.

Karen Mitchell's The Usahar has a good deal of sex, with some bondage elements, and there are lots of "paranormal erotica" books out there with some pretty wild fantasies. And if you really want to go kinky, there's Suzy Charnas' Motherlines, where there are no men and horses are, well, part of the reproductive process. And though it doesn't have much in the way of graphic scenes, Ursula LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness has people whose sex changes when they go into heat, which may be considered kinky.

And I think Susan Wright did some kinky novels too, but I don't recall the details.

you are right. the dragon venom caught alot of flack for its content. as a side note here in my city just today in our local paper they announced that our local library is going to start taking out books and media that have any sexual content or innuendos in them. personally i think that is wrong as i believe that it limits what media is available to the public and it really comes about what the children are reading or checking out. if libraries would get away from the automated checkout and go more with live persons doing it then it could be controlled. ( sorry i am ranting over that news. it just irks me)

It's the old American double standard: violence is okay, but sex is not. So you can have books and movies where people get shot, stabbed, and tortured, but not ones where people make love or just bump and grind. I know there's a lot of argument about whether or not violence in movies or video games makes kids violent, but how is talking about sex or writing about sex going to make kids more sexually active? The highest teen pregnancy rates are the areas where kids are "protected" from sexual material, after all.

And let's face it, the sex in science fiction books is pretty clearly either fantasy, or used to make a point of some sort. Anyone who thinks you can actually have sex the way they do in these books needs to really reconsider the difference between fantasy and reality.

Yeah. What's also sad is that a lot of people don't see that some writers use sex to mean more than just sex, but to explore human nature. That's what James Tiptree did, which is what the Tiptree award is supposed to be about. And Karen Mitchell's book is almost mythical; when I read it I really had to think about what consent really means. Reading Ursula LeGuin'sThe Left Hand of Darkness forced me to think about what it means to have a gender at all.

I think you can explore things in science fiction that you can't explore other ways, and that includes sex and gender. So we share the same peeve about censorship; there are too many firemen out there.

yes we do seem to share the same views. it is good. when i read a book that has sex and inuendos of the same i tend to see beyond what it is printed as and see it as what it really means.

just because a character lights a cigarette when a female is around doesnt mean it was good for her also, just means that that the character is contemplating his next move in the story. (sorry if that dont make sense, getting tired here)

It occurred to me that if you want kink, you could also look at a lot of the work of Heinlein, who had incest stories, a really weird gender-swap with spanking in I will Fear No Evil, and a fascinating new take on time travel and masturbation in All You Zombies.